Back

Jobs inside a shelter in Barcelona. Ramon Perera Collection. Abadia de Montserrat Archive

The air raid shelters of the city of Barcelona

Barcelona City Council has created the website ‘The city of shelters’, a catalogue of the shelters that were built to protect citizens from the bombing of Franco’s troops.

More than a thousand air raid shelters occupied the undergrounds of Barcelona, ​​which were built during the Civil War to protect the citizens from Franco’s air bombings. These structures are part of our heritage and our collective memory, as well as being symbols of popular self-organisation, resistance and struggle. The Department of Democratic Memory has created the website ‘The city of shelters. Catalog of Barcelona’s air raid shelters’, which documents and records each of these shelters, answering the questions who, how, when and why they were built.

You have a website at your disposal, where the City Council’s Archeology Service has also collaborated, with all the information currently available. It is the result of more than 20 years of research, which is not considered completed in any way, but will be constantly renewed. You'll find an interactive map showing the geolocation of 1,322 shelters and the impact areas of the bombings, where you can click on each to find out more.

In addition, there is also a section that puts you in the historical context through different chapters that expand the documentation of the shelters. You will also find information on how a shelter is documented and how archaeologists work there.

You can find the website here.

Publication date: Monday, 22 March 2021
  • Share